Newport Beach resident Ann Wright Johnson has spent part of her 100 years of life in New York, part in California and the rest of it traveling the world.
“I love to travel and see new things,” she said.
Johnson, who turned 100 on July 10, has been in all 50 states, visited China, Japan, Africa, Paris, England, the Middle East, Italy, Canada, Bermuda, Mexico and many other places. She even took a three-month voyage around the world.
When her husband retired she suggested that they start traveling further and seeing the world. He wasn’t very enthusiastic about traveling, but told her if she wanted to, she should go ahead and do it.
“And so I did,” she said.
On several of her globetrotting experiences, she was a lone traveler. On others, she went with a small local group and on others she went with a larger travel group.
The New York native moved to California in 1951 and often drove back east to visit, seeing the sights and friends and family along the way.
She even passed the travel bug down to her daughter, Joanna, who has traveled with her stateside and globally.
Over the last century, Johnson has taken a lot of road trips. Her road trips will now be limited to the passenger seat, though, as she gave up driving last year.
“I can still get around and I, fortunately, still have my marbles,” she said.
There’s no secret to living a long life, she said – not that she knows about, at least.
“Well, probably by having good genes in the family,” she said.
She had a great-grandfather who lived to be 96 and her father died one week before he turned 90.
Some of her friends have said her zest for life and travel have contributed to her long life.
“I guess the places I’ve lived and the way I’ve been able to live are part of the factor,” she said.
Born and raised in New York, she went on to Beaver College, now known as Arcadia University, in Jenkintown, Penn., and studied speech and drama.
“I had to stop going to college because my family lost a lot of money,” she said.
She started working with a traveling theatre group in New England, wrangling locals for small parts in the play.
Around 1930, she worked as a receptionist at a dentist’s office, a job she secured after flashing her winning smile.
“I didn‘t have as much experience as some of the others but I had nice teeth,” she said with a laugh. “Which I still have.”
She also worked as a sales model at RH Macy & Co.
“I just wore their clothes and walked around and lead people to a sales girl,” she said. It was a fun job, she added.
She attended the Riverside Church in New York City, where she was the chairman of membership. She also worked there as a receptionist and later in the business office.
It was a nice place for the community to congregate, mingle and visit.
There were about 500 members and numerous interest groups.
“I was very active in their young people’s group,” she said, where she met her husband.
“I had the neatest husband,” she said. “He was a lovely southern gentleman.”
After several years of dating they tied the knot at the church.
She was married from 1939 until his death in 2005.
“At the time we started going together, it was the height of the depression,” she said.
The depression did affect her family, she said, but not as bad as it did to so many others who had to go on “relief,” or welfare.
They had a summer house and took family road trips.
“They were young and full of fun,” said Johnson, an only child, about her parents.
She moved to California in 1951, when her husband was offered a position at Hughes Aircraft in Culver City. They moved to Newport Beach around 1970.
She has been active in the UCI Town and Gown Scholarship program as well as the Literary Guild of Orange County
Looking back on her life so far, Johnson said there’s a few things that stick out in her memory.
“I was very, very lucky in finding my husband,” she said. “And I’m sorry I didn’t get to finish at the college I went to because of the depression.”
All of her travels were also pretty important in her life.
“Be sure to do some things you want to do,” Johnson said. “Circumstances sometimes make it look like you can’t, but if you want something, really want it, then you should find a way to get it.”
“Lots of people either don’t have the opportunity or the ‘oomph’ to do something,” she said. “I might have lived differently [than most], but I enjoyed it.”
